It wasn't until the chime of the bell over the door sounded that Willow remembered she should have warned Anya about the late-night visited she'd invited but before she could Anya was already speaking.

"Just so you know the shop will be closing so-Merciful Satan."

The other two 'Scoobies' at the table with them turned in amazement never in the short time the young woman had integrated herself into this close circle had they'd heard Anya use that kind of slang as she lunches herself toward the new arrival before the poor woman could even clear the doorway.

"Gaea!?"

"Aud?" The equally stunned-looking woman gasped stumbling back a few steps with the speed of the attack hug "Oh, my beautiful Anyanka, it is truly you?" She coos wrapping her arms around the younger girl in turn as any mother would hold a long-lost child.

The sound of Anya's more demonic name made the trio's eyes bulge even more as they listened to Anya's tearful murmurings in confirmation. "It is Mother. It's me." as she hugs herself closer to the elder woman.

"What shenanigans are you up to now my wild one?" Gaea jokes keeping her arm around Anaya's shoulder as she leads the way back to the table the other three were already seated at.

"Oh, I've dropped that racket. Trying my hand at being a model citizen this century." Anya answers "I even help out Jenny and Rupert here between classes." She adds with pride waving a hand around the shop.

"Well, then I'm proud of you daughter." Gaea smiled running her hand in Anya's hair then her eyebrow raised in question as her lip curls upward in curious amusement "But really? You've given up all your wicked ways?" she probes gratefully taking the seat the younger woman pulls out for her.

"Mostly," Anya answers bashful now as she ducks her head reclaiming her own seat between Gaea and Xander at the table. "Alright, alright I admit it I do take the odd vengeful wish now and again from the other girls in my dorm but those are few and far between now scorned woman know the best way to get back at a hurtful man is to peel the registration tags from their license plates." she breaks down while Gaea Maclay continues to quietly gaze at her.

"And who's idea is it they practice this act?" the blonde-haired mother figure pushes with a teasing chuckle as she once again goes to smoothing a hand in the younger woman's hair.

Anya shifts uncomfortably in her seat while Buffy and Willow fail to hide amused laughter behind their hands at seeing the normally cool and collected former demon squirm under the parental scrutiny. "Why are you here Mother?" Anya asks feeling Xander's hand slip into her own under the table giving her fingers a comforting squeeze in support.

"For her." Gaea gestures toward Willow who immediately sat up a little straighter in her chair on the other side of the elder's own.

It was as if a lightbulb had gone off as soon as Anya looked between the two. "But why-hang on but if you're here for her- then that means-" She gasped her free hand going to cover her own heart as something seems to click together in her mind. "How did I not see it before?" she scolds herself her eyes now only on Willow as if finally seeing her clearly for the first time.

"The heart wants what the heart wants my adoptive daughter." Gaea jumps in when it looked like Anya was about to spill some kind of life-changing secret in her worked-up state. "You of all of us should understand what she's going through." Gaea reminds her eyes sliding from Anya to Xander and back again.

"How can I-we help?" Anya asks her voice far more determined than the listening trio had ever heard before.

"I was hoping you'd ask that." Gaea smiles clapping her hands together.

"So-you and Mrs. Maclay-you two have a history huh?"

Anya can tell by her tone Buffy is trying to be smooth as she fishes for more information.

"Her daughter and I where closer than sisters not that long ago." The former demon allows tugging another title free from the shelf and passing it over onto the stack Buffy had been roped into carrying considering the heft of all of the titles Gaea had asked to look at.

"Her daughter- oh you mean Amber?" Buffy offers and at once Anya shakes her head with a correcting "Tara." As she moves on to the next title needing to be found before she realized what she'd just let slip in her distracted state.

Buffy nearly drops the heavy stack of books onto her foot in shock. "as in Willow's Tara?"

"Keep your voice down." Anya hisses going so far as to press her palm over Buffy's mouth as she peeks around the end of the shelf toward the table but to her relief, no one seemed to have heard them too absorbed in looking up different spells.

"And to be fair I never knew anything but the name of Tara's beloved seeing as Willow's past self had already been dead and gone a few hundred years when Tara and I crossed paths again after she'd lost her human life."

"So you knew Tara and her family when she was still human?" Buffy questions after Anya had removed her and from her mouth shifting the already pulled-out stack of books onto the floor.

"Gaea took me in a few seasons after Tara and I became friends." Anya nodes "but I didn't stay after her brut of a brother returned that last harsh winter. Tara knowing what I was begged me to leave them for my own protection."

"Why?" Buffy wonders honest curiosity in her voice. "The men of the Maclay family didn't take to kindly to demons in the house and Tara the pure soul she was didn't want to see me harmed."

"Okay but what does this have to do with Will…." Buffy cuts in

"Reincarnation." Anya says simply.

"Like a way someone comes back to life after being dead that doesn't involve evil deals or drinking blood?" Buffy clarifies earning a confirming node from the other woman.

"Also, a way for soul pairs like Tara has with Willow to find one another." Again, Anya found herself pressing a hand over Buffy's mouth to quiet her. "Do you want to be in the loop or not, Summers?" she growled

"Sorry An it's just- soulmates?" Buffy laughs

"Soulmates are no joke." Anya snarled her eyes shifting into her more demonic self's before she closes them tightly taking a few calming breaths before she continues speaking. "Neither is reincarnation. And given all the wicked things Tara told me She did in her previous life before that mut ended her it's a downright miracle our Willow is here at all."

"What are you talking about?" Buffy questions

"Willow- past Willow I mean not our Willow- she's the reason Tara is a vampire."

"Well duh," Buffy scoffed "It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out."

Anya lets out a shaky breath running a hand in her hair as she organizes her thoughts trying to find the best way to explain.

"Aud? Are you alright daughter?"

Both women start in surprise at Gaea's sudden appearance, but Buffy was more nervous about just what was overheard when she spots Willow standing behind the intimately mother of a woman.

"We're fine Mother." Anya promises hugging the last book she'd taken from the shelf against her chest as if to shield from the questioning look the former Coven elder was giving her. "What can I help you with?"

"We think we've found a spell that will work but I'd like Willow to help me pick out a new bonded talisman."

"Of course." Anya nodes hastily passing over the book she was holding as she hurried over toward the front desk.